


What Baking Can Do

by miraculousstorytelling



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Baking, Clumsiness, F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Love Confessions, Nervousness, Stress Baking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 15:05:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11739528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraculousstorytelling/pseuds/miraculousstorytelling
Summary: After some early morning stress baking, Marinette finally works up the courage to confess her feelings





	What Baking Can Do

**Author's Note:**

  * For [humanagain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanagain/gifts).



> Happy birthday!! I hope you enjoyed your day and you have a wonderful upcoming year! :)

The smell of flour had always been soothing. Even on days she was up before the sun, mixing and preparing and dividing and shaping her way through an endless supply of dough, Marinette enjoyed that familiar, subtle scent filling the air.

The sound of dough on metal was equally comforting as she mechanically ran through the motions of weighing and slapping and folding and tossing aside each piece, preparing it for the oven. Following this familiar routine kept her thoughts from wandering too far while she calculated how many of each sort of bread the bakery would need that day.

“Marinette?”

Marinette jumped, dropping her dough cutter and knocking over a small bag of flour in the process. She grimaced and turned to face her mother. “I’ll clean that up. Sorry, Mama, I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be up yet.”

“I thought I heard something down here.” Sabine looked over at Marinette’s handiwork. “You’ve been busy.”

“I couldn’t sleep.” Marinette shrugged. “I figured I might as well do something productive.”

“Is this about your crush?” Sabine asked, handing Marinette a broom while she scooped up the dough cutter.

“Well, yes.” Marinette frowned, sweeping up the fallen dough. “But, um, about that…”

“Have you talked to her yet?”

Marinette froze and stared at her mother’s back while Sabine scrubbed the tool clean. “I...what?”

“Or is that why she’s coming over for dinner tonight?”

Marinette slowly set the broom down. “When did you figure it out?”

Sabine chuckled. “Sometime between the day you redecorated your room and the time you begged me to help you make Alya’s favorite kind of cookie.”

“Was I really that obvious?” Marinette leaned back against the counter, her floury mess long forgotten. “Do you think Alya figured it out? She pays attention to everything. But, if she knows, why hasn’t she said anything?” She could feel herself falling into that familiar pattern of babbling out every fear that crossed her mind, panic rising in her throat. “Does she want me to say something? Does she want to keep things the way they are?”

Sabine set the dough cutter aside to dry and grabbed a fresh bag of flour for the table. “Why don’t you help me finish this batch?”

Marinette bit back another verbal torrent of anxiety and reached for the dough, trying to fight the urge to ask more questions and give voice to more of her concerns. As her mother dusted the table with flour, Marinette fell back into the rhythm of preparing for the morning rush. Unfortunately, her mind was working too fast to be distracted now. “Do you think she feels the same way?” she finally blurted out, too nervous to look up at her mother across the table.

“I think you’ll find out tonight.” Sabine smiled as she worked. “I hope she does.”

Even though it wasn’t exactly the answer she wanted, Marinette relaxed and nodded. “Me, too.”

 

When her father woke up to join them, Marinette and Sabine were already finished with the morning preparations. He arrived in time to help clean and make a special breakfast before Marinette left for school. While she enjoyed eating something besides her usual cereal, part of her regretted it when she realized it meant more food to churn in her stomach while she walked to school and imagined seeing Alya when she arrived.

“Hey!” Alya waved from the steps when she spotted Marinette. “You look more awake than usual.”

“Yeah, I was up early to help with baking.” Marinette smiled, hoping her nerves didn’t show. “Are you ready for dinner tonight?”

“I’ve been looking forward to it all week!” Alya grinned and slipped her arm in Marinette’s. “We’re having those honey lavender macarons, too, right?”

“Yeah!” Marinette had spent hours on the perfect batch yesterday, knowing they were Alya’s favorite, but those were her backup in case her plan didn’t work. “I, um, was thinking you could come over right after school and maybe I could show you how to make them.”

“You know I’ve never baked before, right?” Alya raised a brow as they walked up the steps together.

“Oh, right.” Marinette shook her head. Good thing she was cautious. “Maybe we could make cookies instead. Those are a little easier.” Marinette chuckled, her arm tingling where it came into contact with Alya. If she was lucky, Alya wouldn’t notice the beginnings of a blush on her cheeks, but given how often it had been happening lately, she was due for Alya to see something. Luckily, they reached the classroom without any comment from Alya or anyone else.

 

Marinette spent most of class trying not to stare and not to let herself imagine all the ways a confession could go horribly wrong. Every flash of copper hair made her pulse race, and each time she caught sight of Alya’s focused expression from the corner of her eye, Marinette fought the urge to talk herself out of it.

If this went wrong, she knew it would go horribly wrong.

 

Finally, after Marinette managed to survive a day that felt more like a week, Alya grabbed her hand and led her outside, all smiles and energy now that the weekend was ahead of them.

“So, I’m thinking we start with the cookies and then we can catch up on some shows before dinner, and maybe after dinner, we can try talking our parents into a sleepover so we can join everyone else tomorrow for the race and…” Alya’s voice trailed off as she looked over at Marinette. “You okay?”

“Huh? What?” Marinette jolted back to the present and turned to look at her. “Oh, yeah! It’s fine! I’m just, you know, that early morning is catching up to me.” It was only a half lie, really.

“Maybe we should add a nap into the schedule.” Alya shook her head. “Honestly, girl, when do you ever sleep?”

“Me? You’re the one spending all night on the Ladyblog!” Marinette pushed the door to the bakery open and waved to her mother while they walked to the back.

Sabine managed a quick hello between customers, and Tom called out a greeting from the back while Marinette led Alya to the stairs behind the shop.

“At least I don’t fall asleep in class,” Alya teased.

“That happened once!”

Alya scoffed. “Once a day, maybe.”

Marinette rolled her eyes dramatically while she unlocked the door. “Maybe I just think French is boring.”

“Oh, please, you love French poets.”

Marinette grimaced. “Okay, you do have a point there.” She set aside her purse and began pulling out ingredients. “Want any tea?”

“Nope.” Alya tossed her bag aside and scooped up a few chocolate chips. “What kind of cookies are we making?”

“Chocolate chip?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Okay, so we just need some sugar…” Marinette rummaged around in the cabinets for the bag. “It should be right here. I- Oh!” She grinned and reached out to grab it. “It was just pushed back a little far.”

Unfortunately, her grip wasn’t as solid as she expected, which meant the new bag burst open and spilled all over her and Alya in a sudden shower of powder.

For a moment, the two of them sit in shock, staring at each other, slack-jawed and silent. Finally, Alya grinned and nearly doubled over with laughter with Marinette following soon after.

“I should have guessed you’d be a sugar magnet.” Marinette managed between bursts of laughter. “You’re sweet enough.”

Alya stopped and glanced up at her, a half-smile on her lips. “Keep that up, and I’ll think you’re trying to flirt with me.”

“M-maybe I am,” Marinette stammered out, afraid to look away.

“Are you?”

Marinette swallowed, struggling to access an ounce of the confidence she carried as Ladybug now that she was actually giving voice to her feelings. “Yeah. I really like you.”

“Oh.” Alya brushed some of the sugar from Marinette’s cheek. “Well, good. I like you, too.”

“You do?” Marinette brightened, a thrill of excitement chasing away her lingering apprehension.

“Yeah, who wouldn’t?” Alya chuckled. “I mean, aside from all the tripping and the whole dropping bags of sugar thing.”

“Well, that’s good, because I think that was the last of the sugar up here.” Marinette handed Alya a cloth for her glasses. “So, we won’t really be able to make cookies after all.”

“That’s okay.” Alya grabbed the chocolate chips. “We can just snack on these.”

Marinette grinned. “That sounds good to me.”


End file.
